Belfast International Arts Festival 2017

Dates

06 October 2017 - 28 October 2017, Times vary – check event website

The Belfast International Arts Festival reflects both the changing city and the continuing evolution of creative practice from around the world and features artists and performers from across the globe, bringing everything Belfast audiences have come to expect from the Festival and more: a world class programme of theatre, performance art, moving image, visual art, dance and music from folk to contemporary and classical with opportunities for audiences to directly engage and participate in the creative arts.

Belfast International Arts Festival brings an eclectic fusion of cutting edge performances to the Belfast stage, with 191 events from 14 countries taking place over 23 days from 6 - 28 October 2017, including 12 premieres.

Festival highlights

Karine Polwart appears in the Irish premiere of 'Wind Resistance' at The MAC on Tuesday 10 and Wednesday 11 October.

Soul sensation and singer-songwriter Paul Carrack will hit the stage at the Grand Opera House on Saturday 21 October.

Joint Artists in Residence, Maria McManus and Deirdre Cartmill, will be bringing poetry to the public realm with ‘The Poetry Jukebox’, a contemporary on-street sound installation at the Crescent Arts Centre.

The festival will also see the Irish Premiere of Celui Qui Tombe (He Who Falls) presented by Compagnie Yoann Bourgeois. The circus-influenced spectacle swings into action at the Grand Opera House on 19 and 20 October.

The Ulster Hall will host Russia's famous Mariinsky Orchestra on 11 October. Conducted by Valery Gergiev, the orchestra will perform an all-Russian programme climaxing with Shostakovich's epic Symphony number 11.

'Gardens Speak', an award winning and deeply moving interactive sound installation from Tania El Khoury, contains the oral histories of ten people buried in Syrian gardens, running from the 11 to the 22 October in Shaftesbury Square.

Experience 'Poppies: Weeping Window', a deeply moving ceramic sculpture draped across the front of the Ulster Museum from the 14 October to the 3 December, accompanied by a supporting programme of talks, music, theatre and literary events, 'Contested Legacies'.